Hesitation – or The Difficulty With Ch-ch-choices

People seem to hesitate on the simplest questions. I always thought it was just me, but apparently not. For example, I was in a coffee shop recently, and heard this little exchange at the counter.

“Cup or mug?”
Long pause
“Um… er.. Cup! Yes, cup, please.”

Choices are difficult and can easily slow you down. In the example above, it didn’t make any difference if the man had a cup or a mug – it’s a matter of preference for some people I suppose, but it’s not something you should overly concern yourself with.

And to stop this from becoming a customer-service-y Creating Passionate Users post, here’s how this is relevant for personal productivity:

Handle your choices up the line. When you’re planning out a project, make as many choices as you can about how to handle the project, what to do when, as early as you can. You can always review them later if you have a better idea, but if you don’t have a better idea, you won’t waste time hesitating and trying to determine what to do.